Lecture II. Egyptian Religion. 39
Nekheb, the vulture, was the goddess of the south, in
contradistinction to Uazit, the serpent, the goddess of the north.
But in both the south and the north the same dominant race held
rule, the same customs prevailed, and the same language was
spoken. The Pharaonic Egyptians, in their northern advance,
had carried with them a common legacy of ideas and manners.
Their religious conceptions had been the same, and consequently
the general form assumed by the religious cult was similar. In
spite of local differences and the self-centred character of the
numerous independent principalities, there was, nevertheless, a
family likeness between them all. Ideas and customs, therefore,
which grew up in one place passed readily to another, and the
influence of a particular local sanctuary was easily carried beyond
the limits of the district in which it stood.
One of the most fundamental of the beliefs which the Pharaonic
Egyptians brought with them was that in the divine origin of [041]
certain individuals. The prince who led them was not only
the son of a god or goddess, he was an incarnation of the god
himself. The belief is one of the many facts which link the
Pharaonic civilisation with the culture of primitive Babylonia.
In Babylonia also the king was divine. One of the early kings
of Ur calls himself the son of a goddess, just as Besh does at
Nekhen; and the great conquerors of primeval Asia, Sargon of
Akkad and his son Naram-Sin, give themselves the title of“god”
in their inscriptions; while Naram-Sin is even invoked during his
lifetime as“the god of the city of Agadê”or Akkad. For many
generations the Babylonian kings continued to receive divine
honours while they were still alive; and it was not until after the
conquest of Babylonia by a tribe of half-civilised foreigners from
Nekhen, and Pe”(Pepi168, 182; see alsoTeta272). By the“souls of On”Ra or
rather Tum was meant; Pe and Dep constituted the twin-city of the Delta called
Buto by the Greeks, over a part of which (Dep) Uazit the serpent-goddess of
the north presided, while the other half (Pe) acknowledged Horus as its chief
deity. InTeta 88 “the doubles in Pe”are said to be“the double of Horus.”